SEPTEMBER 27-29 2019at Green Mountain Camp | Dummerston, VT

The Summit is a gathering place to collectively discuss and explore ourrural and small town experiences as LGBTQ people.

This fifth annual event is a three-day gathering for those of us LGBTQ people who are living, creating, working, and organizing in rural communities and small towns.

Out in the Open is a space to vent, strategize, connect, build, reflect, think, experience, and make. Folks from any rural community or small town are welcome to join us.

We encourage participants to bring in to all of these sessions thoughts, questions, and strategies connected to struggles for justice against racism, classism, misogyny, incarceration, police brutality, ableism, fascism, transphobia, and other oppressions.

There will be full- and half-day Friday Field Trips. We're seeing these Field Trips as a way for attendees to get to know a smaller group of summit participants before we're with the whole group on Saturday, to dig in deeply to a single topic, and to experience and support some local Southern Vermont organizing.

Field Trips are intended for those attending the full Summit so you'll see that reflected in the price of registration when you click on the "register" button below. There will be both paid and free Friday Field Trip options.

More details

Our intent with this gathering is to bring together individuals, regardless of organizational affiliation, to discuss, prioritize, strategize, about our rural and small town LGBTQ experiences. In an attempt to have no single organization dominate the conversation, we intend to have no more than three folks from an organization at the gathering.

This year's event has been planned in collaboration with a planning committee of folks who attended previous Summits event along with Green Mountain Crossroads' executive director, HB Lozito.

In an effort to have a gathering that is small enough to meet most people, yet large enough to have a strong diversity of experience, this year's Summit will be limited to 75 people.

These are participatory sessions; not lectures. We want to delve into the experience, knowledge, creativity, and expertise that exists within the group. Come prepared to share and work!

Registration, Accessibility, Location, and Lodging

Registration

Registration details are coming soon! Watch this space and we'll open registration early in Summer 2019. We will have a waitlist this year and expect the Summit will fill up.

You must be registered to attend and we'll post updates when the event is nearly full and at capacity.

We have reserved spaces for those who are unable to pay the registration fee. If this is you, please email HB to discuss. There is no volunteer requirement for a subsidized ticket.

Accessibility

If you need an American Sign Language or another language interpreter, please contact HB Lozito by August 31, 2019.​

We will have on-site childcare for this year's Summit! There will be space on the registration form to let us know if you need childcare and give some details.

Only service animals will be allowed at the Summit. Please leave all other pets at home (or another safe place!).

Dietary restrictions and other food-related needs can be shared with us during the registration survey.

​This year, we will be providing a simplified menu designed to meet most dietary needs with add-ons available. Since we'll be staying over at Green Mountain Camp, The Summit will provide breakfast, lunch, & dinner on Saturday, and breakfast and lunch on Sunday. We will also provide coffee and tea throughout the day. This is a shift from past years! Feel free to contact us with questions.

We are striving to make this event fragrance-free. GMC will provide unscented soap for our use during the weekend. More information on how and why to be fragrance-free below:

Please come without fragrances on your clothes, body, or hair so that members of our community with chemical sensitivities can participate without getting sick. More information about why and how to do this is available here: http://www.therootsjc.org/fragrance-free.html

About the Summit Organizers

GRACE JOHNSTON (she/her) I currently reside in central NY, one stop on my journey of making home in small town and rural places. I am excited about anti-racist collective organizing and education, creating accessible resources to translate radical concepts into every-day relevance, and developing mind-body connection via creative processes. I am looking forward to getting to know this year's Summit group and sharing in conversation and fun times! And hopefully playing four-square again.

HB LOZITO (they/them) - I grew up in rural central Maine, started farming when I was 19, lived for almost a decade on the West Coast, and since 2014 have been the ED of Green Mountain Crossroads working to build the power of rural LGBTQ people in Brattleboro, Vermont.

I am a wooden spoon carver, baker, letterpress artist, oral historian, and am part of the leadership of Lost River Racial Justice, among many other things. Can't wait to meet/see everyone in November!

LILY JOSLIN (they/them, she/her) - Originally from an agricultural community outside of Portland, OR, I've spent most of the last decade working to build a better food system in rural and small-town Maine through organizing, educating, feeding, or some combination of the three. Last year I moved back to Oregon to complete my Masters in Sustainable Food Systems, steward my family’s land, and personally recalibrate. A very, very large chunk of my heart still resides in New England, in no small part thanks to my involvement with Out in the Open. I’m also WILDLY excited to facilitate the nose-to-tail field trip this year!

VANESSA RADITZ (they/them) - I grew up in a family that moved around frequently, but I spent the majority of my childhood in the suburbs of Maryland, and my teen-hood in the suburbs of Nairobi, Kenya. I am a landless queer farmer, environmental educator, and nerdy academic choosing a rural life. I'm excited about community healing, opening access to land and resources, and crafting thriving local cultures and economies based on human and ecological resilience. Out-of-town attendees, I'll be one of your resources for organizing and coordinating housing and travel. ​